In a typical video coding system, pictures are inter-coded or intra-coded for storage and/or transmission. An intra-coded (I) picture is independently encoded without referring to any neighboring inter-coded pictures. Inter-coded pictures include predicted (P) pictures and bidirectionally predicted (B) pictures. P pictures are encoded based upon a preceding I or P picture and B pictures are encoded based upon preceding and following I and/or P pictures. The series of encoded pictures may then be transmitted and/or stored for subsequent processing.